Opinion

Is Pete from Chicago serious about suggesting putting media mogul Oprah Winfrey on the $10 bill? Why is everybody so concerned about putting somebody different on our money? Just leave it alone. It's worked forever. It'll be fine. We don't need Oprah having some other kind of accolade that she...

I'm sorry nine people were killed in South Carolina in a hate crime shooting, but where's the outrage that about 10 people die every weekend in Chicago from senseless shootings? Mayor Rahm Emanuel can't fix that. Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy can't fix that. The city needs someone who can...

Current quibbling over what Jeb Bush meant when he said it's time to phase out and replace Medicare — as opposed to "attacking the seniors," as one woman at a recent event bellowed out — will soon seem quaint against the realities of our future.

Is Tinley Park's former public works director, Dale Schepers, only the first of many heads that will roll over the not-so-smart water meter scandal, and could we see a toppling of Zabrocki's well-crafted empire? The trustees who did not win re-election may be thankful for their losses, possibly...

To the lady complaining about all the fireworks being set off in her neighborhood on the Fourth of July: I'll have you know that on July 9, fireworks and M-80s were still being shot off in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community. Where are the police to enforce the ban on illegal fireworks?

After the Cook County Board passed a sales tax increase in order to cover its pension debt, a frustrated Democratic member of the panel wondered why the governor isn't pushing a state constitutional amendment to change the so-called diminishment clause which the Illinois Supreme Court used as its...

Never get into a heated argument with a person armed with a gun, especially if that individual also has a badge. That's pretty simple advice most of us can live by, but what about those people who don't? Are they just stupid?

I agree with Judy from Oak Lawn complaining about the truck drivers who drive our tollways and expressways. I drive the Tri-State Tollway south of 127th Street. The trucks ride in every lane, cut people off, ride peoples' bumpers and harass them. Nothing is done about these truck drivers. Please,...

Why can't the people back Gov. Bruce Rauner? Illinois has to get out of debt. The Democrats have spent us deeply into debt. They keep spending on foolish things. How about the politicians taking a cut in pay for starters?

I decided to pay a visit to two men at the Cook County Jail who are charged with masterminding a scheme to place squatters in at least a dozen foreclosed houses on Chicago's Southwest Side, and maybe as many as 60 throughout the city.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended the increase in the minimum wage to $10 per hour in the city by saying that nobody should be in poverty. He's contradicting himself by now proposing to take the annual cost-of-living raise away from retired city workers. What makes us different? I recently ordered...

As Palos Park resident Sean Morrison was being handed a seat on the Cook County Board by his fellow GOP township committeemen Wednesday night, one woman objected, claiming over and over that Republicans "are supposed to be the party of good government."

We need term limits for the legislature in Springfield and the elected officials in Chicago. The legislative leaders, especially Mike Madigan and John Cullerton, have been there too long. Voters better wake up and stop putting them back in there. In the city, you put the same people back in. What...

If I am a government official who wants a job for his son and you are a mayor who wants a road project for his city, I can promise you the needed funds in exchange for appointing Junior as public works director of Happy Town — knowing I have not committed a criminal act.

More about Gov. Bruce Rauner and budget reform: Foolish people voted former President George W. Bush in a second time after he stole the first term in Florida thanks to Supreme Court rulings. They voted him back in because we've never kicked a president out in the middle of a war. George knew that....

Chicago Ald. Matt O'Shea, 19th, is still fuming over a decision by a Cook County judge to release two men accused of masterminding a plot to illegally occupy more than a dozen homes in the Beverly and Morgan Park communities.

I have the only logical solution to our problem in Illinois — impeach Gov. Bruce Rauner and elect Attorney General Lisa Madigan as governor. She seems to be the only honest politician we have who truly cares about the people. I think that is the best solution. Besides, I think Rauner makes former...

I have the only logical solution to our problem in Illinois — impeach Gov. Bruce Rauner and elect Attorney General Lisa Madigan as governor. She seems to be the only honest politician we have who truly cares about the people. I think that is the best solution. Besides, I think Rauner makes former...

In what will go down in political annals as a monumentally stupid comment, Donald Trump indicated that just because Arizona Sen. John McCain was captured during the Vietnam War, he shouldn't be regarded as a war hero.

Suspended with pay. It sounds more like a paid vacation for Mr. Schepers, Tinley Park's public works director. Incorrect water bills, the cost for which will probably require new meters, independent investigations and now this. How much will this debacle cost us who live in the village? Among those...

The commenter who said nobody wants Obamacare couldn't be more wrong. Millions of people have signed up for it who did not have insurance before or couldn't afford the insurance they had. If you watch the facts, it's growing daily. I have health insurance through my work and don't need Obamacare,...

Illinois doesn't have a two-party system of government. It has a two-person government: Bruce Rauner and Michael Madigan. And neither man has anything to lose by a long political stalemate in Springfield.

The recent controversy surrounding Rachel Dolezal's misrepresentation of herself as black has not only sparked several lively, and often heated, debates in the media but has also raised some interesting issues about the concept of race and identity in America.

Hey, not everyone agrees with the U.S. Supreme Court's narrow 5-4 decision on gay marriage rights, so you're insulting the people who don't think it was a good decision by putting the gay pride colors all over the Capitol and all the public buildings. Those colors shouldn't be up there because...

The largest provider of respite care services in the south suburbs, Good Shepherd Center headquartered in Hazel Crest, has laid off all of its employees who provide in-home care for individuals with cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy and other developmental disabilities due to the state budget crisis.

Tinley Park is a town with some long-standing vacant homes and businesses, declining property values, escalating property tax bills and a string of government scandals, the latest being inaccurate water meters. Sounds more like a fall from grace than the "best place to raise kids."

Chicago Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno wants to tax these electronic cigarettes that nobody smokes. They're just fake cigarettes. That doesn't make sense. Next thing they're going to try to tax is the air we breathe. Every time you turn around, they're trying to tax something. Tax this and tax that, and...

When you visit a doctor you expect to get quality medical advice, regardless of the physician's religious beliefs. But an Illinois law allows doctors and hospitals to withhold information from patients based on a "right of conscience," potentially endangering lives and, at the very least, limiting...

After staring at my computer screen for more than an hour, I realized that my goal of providing you with a succinct and thoughtful analysis of what happened on a very weird day last week in Illinois government was impossible.

The Rev. Kenneth Fleck from St. George Catholic Church in Tinley Park must be desperate for membership to have the Rev. Michael Pfleger from Chicago making speeches about violence in the city and how Tinley Park residents could curb violence. City people have to take care of their own. So do suburban...

Hey, Mayor Klein of Burbank, here is how you can help reduce some of the flooding in Burbank from an overflow of the Melvina Ditch Reservoir. Before you and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District figure out what to do, look at what Oak Lawn has done — joining the MWRD program to supply free...

I'm so tired of hearing the Chicago Board of Education cry that the school system is broke. What about the property tax we pay that goes to the schools? They should get rid of everybody on that board and put somebody elected in there who knows what they're doing. Every year, it's the same. You...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently said he might have to charge us for our garbage pickup. We pay enough in taxes for our houses, property and water bills. Half the time, the people can't pay for what they have now. If they don't pay for garbage pickup, what happens? What are city officials going...

Chicago honored 572 policemen and policewomen who gave their lives to protect the people of Chicago. These police officers paid the ultimate price to protect us. Instead of bum rapping these heroes like the newspapers and politicians do, we should all be grateful that they died to protect us.

Property tax bills are going up again. All we do in Chicago is get taxed to death and yet the city and school system are deeply in debt. Where's all this money going? The Chicago Public Schools are looking at about $200 million in cuts. It's time we had an elected school board. This city does nothing...

To Judy from Oak Lawn about U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk's TV commercial about fighting back from a stroke: Kirk fought back with more than 70 sessions of rehabilitation. My dad had a stroke. He only got three sessions of rehabilitation as allowed from Medicare. Imagine how much better my dad could be if...

The state of Illinois has to be the most corrupt state in the entire nation. The monopoly in Springfield is a disgrace. Now Chicago Public Schools has another scandal, this one about the loss of $870,000 by fraudulently billing for goods and services that were often never delivered. Don't forget...

Dead Heads are exactly that, dead in the head. I can't believe anyone would shell out good money to see the Grateful Dead without founding member/main man Jerry Garcia. That would be like the Rolling Stones without Keith Richards. Lotta chumps out there.

Being a resident of Tinley Park for more than 21 years has been simply wonderful. When my family moved from Chicago, we found a cozy village where we felt everyone was a true neighbor. Politics was not an issue, and our community ticked like clockwork.

The "two-ring circus," otherwise known as "Rauner versus Madigan 1," again demonstrates the folly of believing that politicians have the public interest in mind. What it does demonstrate is that we are all in big trouble. The politicians who have this state circling the drain financially continue...

To the reader who says that we'll be in trouble for four years because of Gov. Rauner: We elected a Republican to help put a stop to the downward spiral the state of Illinois has been in under Democratic control. Mike Madigan and his cronies have all but bankrupted this state, and Rauner was elected...

House Speaker Michael Madigan likes to send "messages." He doesn't often explain what those messages are, but last week's surprising defeat of a bill to give the Chicago Public Schools a 40-day extension on its $634 million pension payment that was due Tuesday was surely a message to somebody.

For the first time in decades, the public employee unions in Illinois are sitting across the negotiating table from someone not bought and paid for and there just to rubber-stamp there demands. The unions for years have thought extortion of the taxpayers was their right by keeping the leadership...

When is it going to occur to Gov. Bruce Rauner that the Democratic Party helped him get elected because they wouldn't back former Gov. Pat Quinn? They know taxes in the state have to be raised. They want to be able to blame Republicans for doing it. Until Rauner agrees to raise the state income...

As a former Chicago police officer, I'm often asked why so many black men are dying during interactions with law enforcement. I note that there are many factors, including too little training in developing expertise on how best to deflate situations involving intense anger and frustration.

As I recall, Orland Park officials told us that, when completed, the Ninety7Fifty on the Park apartment building would be an upscale blend of residential and retail uses in a pedestrian-friendly downtown where people could live, shop, dine and be entertained. So where does putting a big University...

Tinley Park Police Chief Steve Neubauer doesn't get the meaning of abuse of a public vehicle for personal use. A sports utility vehicle with a plainclothes police officer was in Orland Park. That's not Tinley Park's jurisdiction. Weren't you wasting gasoline going there for personal use? Chief,...

In my personal opinion, I think the Clintons are greedy and money-hungry. They both have made $30 million-plus for delivering speeches? I don't see why anyone would pay them so much. You have to be a moron to do so. $30 million? That would buy a lot of food for the homeless. Think about it.

I'm upset about drivers, especially young drivers, talking on the phone. I started driving when I was 16 years old back in the 1950s. We didn't have turning signals. I learned to drive using my arms as my turning signals. I never had an accident that was my fault. I'm 78 and have had three accidents...

I had to laugh when I read another delusional Speak Out from BJ from Hazel Crest. BJ proposes that we get gang-bangers to talk about who gets shot in various communities to help resolve problem of gun violence. The problem is that people with similar ideas have placated and tolerated gang-bangers...

Oak Lawn is considering parking restrictions on RVs and boats on residential property. If it's anything like other Southland towns, sometimes these vehicles are parked in the grass, bigger than the homes they're stored beside, or they sit unused and rusting for years. Neighbors should not have...

I have no problem with Governor Rauner paying his staff and consultants high salaries. I do have a problem with him paying them from other agencies' budgets and not his own. He made this very thing a campaign issue against Gov. Quinn, and when elected, he does the same thing. I can't blame the...

Watching Blackhawks players after their third Stanley Cup championship in six seasons this week made me wonder why hockey players seem to enjoy interacting with fans so much more than other professional athletes.

In a recent column, Phil Kadner cited downstate St. Clair County as an example of localities in Illinois in such dire economic straits that they can't really provide proper police or other public safety. St. Clair County is, of course, the location where MidAmerica Airport, an "international airport,"...

Standing outside the banquet hall at Gaelic Park in Oak Forest on Monday were about a dozen adults hoping to attract the attention of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was scheduled to speak at a chamber of commerce luncheon. I doubt the governor, who seemed to find a back way into the building, ever saw...

I'm a concerned citizen. I was shopping at Jewel-Osco at 87th Street and Ridgeland Avenue. There's a large pothole in the parking lot close to the building. I told the customer service manager and two workers in the lot tending to the shopping carts, but none of hem did anything about it. This...

People are complaining about House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. The way the legislative districts are set up, there's no way in the world you can vote them out. The best thing we can do in this country is to require fairly drawn districts. It has to be a federal law....

The movie "Chiraq" can only further damage the image of Chicago, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel only has himself to blame because his administration has given huge tax breaks to attract movie companies to film here. Wouldn't a really caring mayor have given these tax breaks to small businesses, instead,...

The hype opposing genetically modified foods can be effectively quashed by the many studies by legitimate, independent researchers around the world that have found them to be safe and nutritionally equal to non-GM food.

I wonder how it is that 70-somethings Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney don't appear to have any gray hair. Hmmm. And Keith Richards with that thick headband. Balding maybe? Look and be what you are already. You can't beat father time.

In what seems like a common-sense approach to a growing problem, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart wants the state comptroller to create and publish online a financial watch list of Illinois municipalities in "distress."

When did people in the south suburbs, who paid a lot more for their houses than they are now worth and who still have high property tax bills, become so complacent and accepting of main streets and neighborhoods that are sloppy, dirty and rundown? Our expectations should be much higher.

Now that the water meter scandal has come to light in Tinley Park, will anyone who deliberately ignored the misreadings while we paid for water we didn't use get fired? Will a political victim, who was told to sweep it under the rug, take the fall and join the ranks of the unemployed? Or will it...

After five months, you'd think that the warring parties at the Illinois Statehouse would have learned something about each other. Instead, last week's bitter and divisive House overtime session showed that they still fundamentally misunderstand one another.

Regarding former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the sexual abuse claims, why are we using words like bribery and not blackmail? Hastert was forced to withdraw and conceal about $1.7 million in payoffs to avoid being accused publicly of sexual abuse charges. Is it not illegal to blackmail...

A new Pew Research Center report states that 52 percent of Americans support gun rights, the highest percentage in the last two decades. Yet the gun rights that they believe are guaranteed by law may very well be an illusion.

Loved the recent article about foreclosures in the Southland. Blame the banks and financial institutions for giving loans to people who could not afford to own in the first place. Owning a home is tough, keeping your home is tougher. Then there are the losers — the towns that have the blight of...